Machines of this type, known as TCR (Teller Cash Recycler) are used in Banking Institutes as assistance to the tellers to automatize operations of deposit and delivery of banknotes from customers.
The automatic machines currently used for the cash-in and the result of cash are located in the immediate proximity of a banking workstation, or between two banking workstations, often underneath the working plane of the banking workstation. These machines have an input transaction port in which the banknotes received from the teller are inserted in bundle for being separated and to pass to a validation device, an output transaction port and, as recycling store, comprise a safe including a series of recycling boxes. The separated banknotes pass to a validation device, which verifies the authenticity and the denomination thereof: the banknotes recognized as valid are sent to the safe, while the banknotes recognized as not valid are sent to the output port. The output transaction port also receives the banknotes from the recycling store.
An activity typical of the banking environment relates to the validation, the calculation and the preparation of stacks of banknotes to be used for reloading automatic equipments for the withdrawal of banknotes of ATM type. The banknotes for such equipments should respect conditions of recycling regarding the degree of integrity thereof. A genuine banknote is “Fit” if it has a degree of such integrity to respect the conditions of recycling. A genuine banknote is “Unfit”, if it is not fit to the conditions of recycling: it has to be retired from the circulation and should be processed apart.
In the European Community, the circulation of the banknotes of the European system is regulated by particular banking Rules given, in detail, by the pamphlet “Recycling European of Banknotes” dated January 2005.
An actual classification divides the banknotes for the deposit and following recycling operation in four categories:                Cat 1(A) unidentified banknotes;        Cat 2(A) false banknotes;        Cat 3(A) suspected banknotes;        Cat 4a(B1) genuine and “Fit” banknotes; and        Cat 4a(B2) genuine but “Unfit” banknotes.        
The current TCR machines are not able to verify if the banknotes recognized as genuine have a degree of integrity to respect the “Fit/Unfit” conditions of recycling. Those machines are not of help in the operations of calculation and preparation of stacks of banknotes for ATMs.
Complex systems for the automatic processing and the recycling of banknotes and to classify the banknotes on the basis of examination of the “Fit/Unfit” conditions are also known. Such systems include several boxes, which are programmable to receive, in selective way, different kinds and denominations of banknotes. On the other hand, these systems are of high costs and dimensions and are unsuitable to be use close to a banking workstation.